X Los Angeles

Rising out the disregarded L.A. punk scene, X’s hook-thick and emotionally powerful songs on this 1980 debut mixed haunted Hollywood imagery and street-grit poetics with snarly guitars and songcraft. The album owes as much to traditional country music as it does classic rock and punk. The dual vocals of singer Exene and bassist John Doe blended to create mellifluous yet friction-filled harmonies with lyrics that beautifully reflected the decay of inner-city Los Angeles, especially on the title song and “The World’s a Mess It’s in My Kiss”.